From Dusk Until Dawn Prologue: Part One: Beacon
by Cougar Draven
Summary: The first prologue to From Dusk Until Dawn. Provides some basic background on the characters, as well as tying up a few loose ends.
1. A Beacon in the Night

I'm running.

I've been running for weeks. I've had to. I can't ever slow down, or I'll lose everything...again.

My name...my name was once John Morgan. I was born into a simple existence on the planet Earth. Which Earth, you say? I really don't have a clue. That's...that's almost the point. Because my name was also once John Hetfield, and I was born into a simple existence on the planet Earth.

Do you see the problem yet?

I can't exist, and yet I do. My name was John Morgan. It is now Cougar Draven. I've got more power in one hand than most city blocks do in their transformers, but if I'm not all-go-no-stop for the foreseeable future, I won't be able to stop a devastation that I know is coming.

Something's happened to me. I remember John Hetfield leaving his simple existence to fight a war with two men who were closer than friends. We...they were brothers. I remember a long, cold sleep, and waking up with, of all things, a lightsaber. I remember a connect to the Force. It doesn't make any godDAMN SENSE!

I think I died once. Right after I got here, actually. I remember the shadows settling in around me, though that may have just been part of who I was then. And then I felt them leave, one by one, until I was alone. It was quite then.

I remember John Morgan seeing the bright, bright white of a nuclear explosion, and waking up two hundred years in the future. I remember John Hetfield being thrown into a distant, dystopian past. I remember John Morgan enlisting in Starfleet. I remember John Hetfield meeting a Hero. I remember years upon years of cold exile hibernating inside a machine form. I remember travel into the future. I remember flying a ship toward a tear in the fabric of the universe. I remember creating a tear in the fabric of the universe. I remember...

I remember living. I remember dying.

I remember everything.

I am John Morgan. I am John Hetfield. I am Cougar Draven. I am everything, and everyone. And I am running. 


	2. A Beacon in the Darkness

"I watched her die."

Link slumped to the floor, entirely oblivious to the many alarms going off around him, as he replayed the last battle in his head. Something jarred him out of his recollection, and he followed what turned out to be a hand up to its owner.

"I watched her die, Howler. I saw it happen, and I did nothing to prevent it."

Howler Draven looked down at the younger warrior with sadness in his eyes, then physically hauled him to his feet.

"I know, kid, and I promise you'll have time to deal with it, but for now, we have to run."

Howler turned and ran, dragging Link behind him as he went, dodging debris. Link, seeing this, finally snapped out of his despair momentarily, and picked up his pace, sprinting beside the older Jedi.

"Howler, what happened?"

"I'm not entirely sure, kid. I know that when we got picked up by the ship, Cougar vanished. I know I saw him again, but he looked...different. Younger. I also know that Jess and Ed were trading punches when the alarms started going off. I'm not entirely sure, but I think that most of the rest of the people on this ship are dead. We're the last two."

The two men sprinted through the rapidly disintegrating ship, dodging bulkheads and flying chairs, until they found what they were looking for: an escape pod. Sealing themselves inside, they launched the pod, just barely making it out of the range of the final explosion that tore the massive battle cruiser apart. Howler watched the wreckage, reading the name of the ship off some pieces of the hull.

"Well, such was the last flight of the USS Ascendancy. I hope Captain Hetfield didn't need her anymore."

"I thought he was an Admiral."

"I don't think it matters anymore, kid." 


	3. A Beacon in the Shadow

In the aftermath of the explosion, all the fifteen survivors could recall was that the world cut itself open, and fire came out. Blue fire. And red fire. And then nothing, until the medics woke them up to tell them about the massive starship which had suddenly appeared in the upper atmosphere and then exploded. As near as the Defense Corps could tell, there were less than ten survivors, all scattered around the globe. The three that came through on the planet itself...tore the entire coastline apart, from the southern edge of Bl dhaven south for a hundred miles.

But that is then, and this is now. Ice forms and shapes itself, only to be fizzled into vapor by the plasma fire of a shining red lightsaber. Two women flit about and scream obscenities at one another, while a large green man fades away into the shadows.

"I've had it with your overbearing presence, Jessica! I'm done with you! This is where it ends!"

"Oh, you're right about that, Cassie. But, my overbearing presence? You KILLED ME! I SHOULD BE ENDING YOU!"

Jess threw a fresh block of ice up around her younger sister, and this time, it managed to entrap her, freezing her torso and legs solid, as well as most of her arms, leaving a burning lightsaber blade extending from her trapped fist.

"I'll get out of here, Jess. You know I will. I always do."

"I know, Cassie. And I'll be waiting."

"I'm sure you will. You'll be waiting for me to cut your damn fool head of-hgkk..."

Even as her younger sister started spitting blood, Jess noted that there was a second red beam, this one extending through Cassandra's chest. The blade withdrew, and as her sister died, Jess Draven prepared to fight.

"I'm so sorry, Master, but this has gone on long enough. I'm finished with all of this. I'm going to wait, and I'm going to watch, and I'm going to take this planet down, one person at a time. Starting with your big sister."

Ganondorf Dragmire pulled himself to his full eight feet of height, as the diminutive sorceress prepared herself for the fight of, if not for, her life. Then, as they were about to brawl, a glowing light stopped them cold, especially for who it contained.

"And just exactly what do you two think you're doing?" 


	4. A Beacon to the Lost

The pod jerked slightly as it was caught in a gravity well, but neither Howler nor Link noticed, both being too busy mourning those missing or dead. Link, despite having more to mourn, had to ask the question that was burning on his mind.

"Howler, how many others got off the ship before us?"

"Well...I'm not sure. I suppose Cougar got off the ship, but he seemed like he was having issues. Must have been that mind merge thing, yeah?"

"I suppose. I guess that makes me wonder, though. Do we have doubles in that world?"

"I guess we do. But mine lived two hundred years before Cougar's, and yours would live four more centuries before that, at my best guess."

"Ah. What about...what about Ganon?"

Link's voice cracked, and Howler understood. After all the kid had been through...and to be giving him this kind of news, too...

"I'm pretty sure he got off with the first wave, when the teleporters were still working. This is before Jess and Ed cut through the hull with their power beams. Or whatever. I suppose the two of them are probably still fighting, and Ganondorf is hiding, like he always does. But you'll find him, Link. I'm sure we'll find him on the planet."

"Why's that? We don't even know where we are."

"Well, kid, this was the only planet within a few hundred million miles. Nobody's going anywhere else. And..."

Howler stood up and looked out the viewport at the blue planet slowly growing larger beneath them.

"Link...I know where we are."

A single tear of hope ran down Howler's cheek.

"We're home. That's Earth." 


End file.
